You won’t get Heinz ketchup at Mike Smith’s restaurants anymore — no matter how long you wait, or how long you shake the bottle.

The ketchup brand that made “anticipation” a virtue is gone from the London eateries, yanked by owner Smith in a symbolic protest against Heinz shutting its Leamington plant and putting 740 people out of work. The ripple effect is also expected to clobber many area tomato growers.

“I look what that decision is going to do to Leamington. It’s not just a setback — that’s huge,” said Smith, owner of Joe Kool’s, Fellini Koolini’s and P Za Pie, along with two London bars.

“Heinz is allowed to make a corporate decision, but I’m making a corporate decision not to buy their product,” he said. “I hope others do the same.”

Smith is now going with a no-name brand in his restaurants — that’s 50 bottles at Joe Kool’s alone.

The switch is a temporary move, he said, conceding Heinz could well be the no-name brand maker.

“We are going to look at another brand that is hopefully locally made.”

Thursday, as part of its U.S. parent’s restructuring, Heinz Canada said it’ll shut the Leamington plant after more than a century in operation.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, who doubles as agriculture minister, took a pounding on Twitter for being AWOL as the news filtered out, but Friday in a statement said she’s “extremely disappointed” by the closing. “My first concern is for the workers, their families and the broader community.”

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OTHER REACTION

From Southwestern Ontario growers

The factory-closing “came out of the blue.”

— David Epp, Lycoland Farms Ltd. near Leamington

“We always had the feeling if they were going to close, they would kind of phase it out.”

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